Tynewater Primary School a thinking-caring learning community Information for Parents Nursery to P7: email / copy per family via oldest child Thursday 7 May 2015 Dear Parents / Carers, Please find the following items attached by email / enclosed: For: Term 4 Information from 4 May to 3 July 2015 Diary Information will be regularly updated on our School Website. All Parents are welcome to any Assembly. Nursery to P7 Preferred date / time form for Nursery Parent-Teacher meetings on Wednesday 3 June, Thursday 11 June and Friday 12 June Nursery Friday 29 May: Nursery to P7 Open Time Please come along to learn about what your child has been learning and to celebrate his/her achievements. Nursery ‘Stay and Play’ Nursery to P7 Assembly: Presentation of Certificates ONLY P1 and P2 Open Time P3 to P7 Open Time Parents’ Café for School Funds (10.30 to 10.45 with Staff) – Donations of homebaking are most welcome Younger siblings are most welcome, but could they please be supervised throughout. 8.30 to 9.15 9.15 to 9.30 9.35 to 10.15 9.35 to 10.20 10.15 to 11.00 Nursery 'Stay and Play' Open Times Parents/carers of Nursery children are invited to 'stay and play' with their child at the beginning of the session on Friday 29 May. This will give the children an opportunity to show you what they have been learning and for you to see our daily routines at Nursery. The morning 'Stay and Play' will be from 8.30 am to 9.15 am and the afternoon 'Stay and Play' from 12.25 pm to 1.10 pm. These times will enable parents with older children to take part in the open morning sessions as well. School Improvement Plan Priorities During this term teachers are focusing on improving teaching and learning related to Religious and Moral Education. Teachers are also building on the teaching and learning of French language introduced throughout our school from Nursery to Primary 7 during Term 2 (October to December). Teachers continue to develop ‘visible learning’ maximizing their impact on all pupils’ learning and progress in all curriculum areas – our priority in Term 1 (August to October 2014). page 1 of 3 Tynewater Primary School - a thinking-caring learning community Information for Parents 7/5/15 Staffing Following an application and interview we welcome Mrs Nicola Marr as Learning Assistant (Additional Support Needs) on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Mrs Irene Allan (long-term Supply Teacher) teaching Primary 1 since 21 October 2014 due to Mrs McCabe’s maternity leave will be leaving us on Friday 15 May to look after her new grandson – as planned although earlier than anticipated. Mrs Allan has completed progress reports to this date for our P1 pupils. We thank Mrs Allan for teaching Primary 1 at Tynewater – for a second year, especially so when Supply Teachers are so few and far between. We wish her well in her ‘semiretirement’. Mrs Marcia Rankin (long-term Supply Teacher) will teach Primary 1 from Tuesday 19 May to Friday 3 July. She will be employed in school from Friday 15 May, therefore having a day to liaise with Mrs Allan. Mrs Rankin taught P6/7 from 24 March to 3 November 2014 during Mrs Pleasance’s maternity leave; she has experience of teaching every stage. By way of introduction, Mr Lawson and Mrs Rankin invite parents of P1 pupils to meet with them on Thursday 21 May in Community Room 2 from 8.50 to 9.10 and from 3.05 to 3.25 (whichever time suits parents). Ms Corcoran (Acting Principal Teacher) will teach Primary 1 during these times. Saturday 16 May from 9.00 to 1.00 School Garden tidy and making ready for growing organized by our Parent Council who have issued details Pupils must be accompanied by an adult There will be access to our school toilets A tea / juice and biscuit break is planned Please come along and take part for some or all of the time Thursday 4 June in our school hall 6.30 to 7.30 pm P7 London Study Visits: 22 to 26 September 2014 (7 pupils), 28 Sept to 2 October 2015 (15 pupils) and 5 to 9 September 2016 (17 pupils) Video presentation and planning meeting for parents of pupils and pupils of our 2014, 2015 and 2016 Study Visits with Mr Lawson, Head Teacher Congratulations to our 11 Primary 7 pupils whose song YOLO is one of twelve songs through to the final of the MidVision Competition at Dalkeith Campus on Tuesday 23 June. Thank you so much to Karine Polwart for helping our young people develop their ideas in weekly sessions since January and helping them to record their song. Thank you to Mattie Foulds for professionally recording and mixing the various tracks. page 2 of 3 Tynewater Primary School - a thinking-caring learning community Information for Parents 7/5/15 P1 to P7 Film Festival: Thursday 25 June in our school hall Showing of 5-minute video programmes made by each Class 6.00 to 6.30 P1 to P3 pupils and parents 7.00 to 7.30 P4 to P7 pupils and parents Booking forms for tickets will be issued Photographs from P1 to P7 Photography Competition will be on display in the dining area on Thursday 25 June. Details will be issued. Planning for 2015-2016 We are currently making enquiries about resuming 3-day residential study visits in September for Primary 5 pupils (New Lanark) and Primary 6 pupils (Glasgow Science Centre). Details will follow as soon as possible. Pathhead and District Horticultural Society 63rd Annual Flower Show on Saturday 29 August opening at 2.15 pm Please buy a programme currently available from local shops. We wish to encourage as many children and families to take part in the various competitions for this community event. Nut allergies A number of pupils have severe allergies to nuts therefore could we please remember to try and make our school – as far as possible – a nut-free zone. Sun cream and sunblock We are all hoping for warm, sunny weather! When this happens, could pupils please come to school with all-day sun cream or sunblock on? A hat is useful too. As always, please speak with me if you have any concerns, questions, feedback or suggestions, or simply need to talk through something. I welcome your approach to speak with you about any matter relating to your child(-ren) or our school. We look forward to working with you each day to support your child(-ren)’s learning as much as possible. With best wishes for our Summer Term, Douglas Lawson Head Teacher page 3 of 3